It's not just the school

Altin and Paul stood silent in the middle of the hall. Stories of ghosts and urban legends were common among teenagers but never had one involved a teacher and was recorded, on top of that. So the first thing to check was...

"Can I see the video?" Altin asked.

"There, take my phone," Paul said while passing his phone to Altin.

He took the phone and touched the play button on Paul's phone - it was already set to play the video Paul mentioned.

The video showed a room full of students, aged between 14 and 15 y.o.

At the front of the classroom, a teacher was writing on blackboard chalk with a chalk stick. His every stroke produced a tiny stringent sound from the friction between the chalk and the board.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

A "tap" was also often heard whenever he raised the chalk to start another stroke discontinued from the previous one. As he wrote the lesson, he also read aloud. Although some scholars were whispering between each other, the classroom was overall silent, with just the sound of the teacher talking and the chalk stick writing.

Suddenly, the chalk ceased to make any sound, and the teacher seemed to stop to talk. However, his mouth was still moving, and the chalk was still writing. Puzzled, a student called out the teacher: "Teacher, we don't hear you anymore."

The teacher seemed to hear nothing, and he continued to write on the board. This had more students complain:

"Teacher, we still can't hear you."

"Right, we don't hear anything anymore."

"Are you talking, teacher?"

Multiple students inquired.

Others started to talk among themselves, and some even stood up.

As the teacher turned as these students, he asked an unanswered question. However, his voice seemed muted, and not realizing that nobody could hear him, the teacher slapped his book on the table. From his point of view, he must have believed the students were mocking him or were coming with a plan to disrupt the lesson.

However, even the slap of the book against the table didn't produce any sound.

The teacher couldn't understand what was happening, and he eventually walked toward one of the students, going all the way to the first desk, leaving the blackboard alone.

He then shouted, "Get back to your seats! What are you talking about? Didn't you hear me just now?!"

That silenced the classroom.

He then came back to the blackboard and continued the lesson.

However, this time, "sound" seemed to propagate as usual, and the lesson resumed.

The classroom was mystified, and quickly the video ended.

"Why was the video recorded, to begin with?" Altin asked.

"One guy is used to make videos of the lessons because he writes a little slowly, so when he is a little late, he can watch the video and catch up. The teacher also gives verbal clues on what the exam will be on, like he says, 'Note that well, be prepared, this is very important, etc." Paul said with a serious face: "That's 100% legit; he has been doing that for months.

Altin paused and thought.

Silence.

Silence in the hall. Altin and Paul were the only two students left, yet to join their classroom.

"Ahhhh, Paul, let's talk about it later with the band; we're late already!" Altin realized.

"No worries, I do it all the time," Paul reassured.

That didn't make Altin feel better.

The two rushed to their classroom.

During the classes, they exchanged messages on the band's WhatsApp group. They agreed to meet after school at Altin foster's home.

---

It was Friday, and like on every Friday, Altin would head out of Paris to Reims, where he would come back to his foster family's house. This weekend, they had agreed to hang out together there for a change of scenery.

Altin, François, Julien, and Paul were in a car en route to Reims.

They sat in the car of Mr. Durand, with Altin, Julien, and Paul in the back and François at the front.

Mr. Durand was the foster father of Altin, but he was actually quite old.

Altin's foster family consisted of Mr. Durand and Mrs. Durand. Husband and wife, they were respectively 63 and 65-year-olds. Altin hadn't been adopted; instead, he was taken care of by the orphanage and then by different foster families. He was only with Mr and Mme Durand since middle school.

The car traced across the French countryside.

Greenfields laid everywhere. The sky was blue; it was a beautiful landscape for an early Spring. The road seemed endless; it was unknown when they would arrive. While thinking that, Altin let himself fall asleep. He couldn't help but think of his past.

He didn't remember his parents.

He had no idea where he came from. Nobody knew.

His first memory was of him waking up in an unknown bed, in a white room, with the company of a machine emitting a continuous "beep."

Soon after he woke up, a nurse came to inquire if he remembered anything. She explained he had suffered head trauma and was found unconscious on the side of a road at night. However, Altin couldn't remember anything. He only remembered one name: "Altin." "That must be my name," He thought at that time. He tried to speak, but he found he couldn't find the words. He was mute.

Later on, the police came to investigate his background. However, no results ever came, so he was placed in an orphanage. Because he was too old and was suffering from severe speaking difficulties, he was never adopted. Only after the 5th grade could he finally voice his thoughts. That was after numerous consultations with speech doctors. He had no friends, and day and night, he dreamt. Day and night, he would also spend his time exploring new things like a newborn.

Altin felt sorrow when thinking of his past. He had had a hard time in school, whether to make friends or pass the exams. Due to his difficulty in speaking and reading, he was almost considered a mentally disabled person. Fortunately, Altin had been aware that he was "different," so he pushed to progress. His efforts paid off, and he caught up to the other kids little by little. While he was a well-bellow average kid in primary school, he became above average in middle school. This year 2020, in his 9th grade, he had good grades in most subjects. He was considered a good student, albeit not very good.

His only friends were his roommates, but that was to be expected. Most of the kids coming from a troubled childhood tended to band together, and also only together. It was so much easier.

An hour and a half of driving later, they arrived at Reims.

---

"Kids, wake up. We arrived at the house."

That was Mr. Durand speaking.

Little by little, the boys opened their eyes and looked around.

Mr. Durand had indeed just parked the car in front of a two-stories countryside house. The house was made of beige bricks, a pale yellow. Each floor had two rooms facing southward. The house had a small front courtyard, where cars would usually park, and a garden in the backyard. They weren't far from the downtown of Reims, about 3km away from it, also not far from a vast area of land of grapes reserved for producing the "champagne," a famous and expensive French bubbling wine typically consumed during celebrations. Champagne was so renowned that the region was called "Champagne-Ardenne."

It was 7 pm, about time for dinner.

"You slept well, Altin ?" Julien asked.

Altin answered: "I did. You?"

"Quite well, but not too much; I am still thinking about this video and the frozen ball phenomenon," Julien replied.

"Still any idea on what could have happened ?" Altin inquired.

"Umm... maybe". Julien seemed hesitant.

Altin, Julien, François, Paul, and Mr. Durand exited the car, with the latter leading the way. They walked towards the house entrance.

Mr. Durand opened the door.

"Oh! Altin, welcome home! The diner's ready already. Are you guys hungry?"

That was Mme Durand, the foster mother of Altin. For their age, Mr. and Mme Durand looked reasonably healthy. They were a bit overweight, but they walked and climbed the stairs without difficulty, albeit slowly. Running, however, was something not attempted for years.

They were charming people. They had never been able to have any children, but they didn't mind it. It was only upon nearing retirement age that they felt something missing in their family. They then decided to welcome Altin as a permanent foster son. Since then, the daily life of Altin has become much better. However, since his school was too far from Reims, he was placed in a dorm, like the others. It frequently occurred: many came to Paris from the countryside to study in the hope of having better education, and they would live in dorms.

"Mme Durand! Good evening! Thank you for preparing the meal! We're probably all hungry." Altin exclaimed.

"You kids are still growing; you should eat a lot! Altin and Julien, you are too thin." Mme Durand said.

"Can't help it," Altin lamented.

Mr and Mme Durand and François, Altin, Julien, and Paul soon came to the dining room, where they sat.

The table was neatly arranged with six plates and six fork and knife sets. Mme Durand had been expected them.

"How is school lately ?" Mme Durand inquired.

"Boring as always," Paul said.

"We beat some idiots at football four weeks ago; that felt good." That was François, proud of this feat.

"Some weird things happened lately," Julien said.

Français, Altin and Paul became unconfortable. The wildest rumors still ran about the weirs anomalies they had witnessed. However, Julien seemed to want to talk about it. He explained:

"Last month, during our football game, Altin kicked the ball high in the ceiling. It then stopped in mid-air, as if it was hung by an invisible string, except we couldn't find anything." Julien recounted the story. "Right, Altin?"

Altin testified after a moment of hesitation: "...Right! After that, the school technician did a manual inspection of the gym and its ceiling, but he found nothing unusual. He eventually concluded that we saw wrongly, but we did not! "

Altin had followed the story closely. Given the uproar and the many witnesses, the technician had taken a look himself, but sadly no results came about.

"Do you mean that the ball slowed and fell, losing speed?" Mr. Durand asked.

"No, we mean it slowed to the point of stopping but didn't fall. Instead, it was frozen in mid-air as if it was levitating. Only after a full minute later did the ball fall." Julien insisted.

"Is it possible you saw wrongly?"

"More than 30 people saw the same thing; that had to be real." François intervened.

"Maybe your school is haunted." Mme Durand joked. Although she was smiling as if she was joking, she believed in ghosts. For her, the unexplainable wasn't all that surprising.

"That's what many people think, the ones that believe," Altin said

"Could it be really that the school is haunted?" Paul attempted.

No one replied for a few seconds.

"Well, who knows? Whatever it is, we'll probably never know; let's forget it." Mr. Durand suggested. He was reluctant to believe in ghosts, so he usually disregarded paranormal testimonies as mistakes or illusions. On this, he was a bit like Altin: one weird occurrence was bizarre but could be a coincidence; two occurrences, however, would not.

"But it wasn't just that one thing." Altin refused to let the matter go. "It's not just that. Just yesterday, somebody took a video of another bizarre phenomenon. It was during a class. Abruptly, the teacher stopped making noise, despite him still talking. It was as if the area where he was became isolated from the rest of the classroom by an invisible sound barrier. We have a video."

"Did he run a joke, perhaps ?" Mr. Durand asked. He could see the kids were serious; they didn't seem to joke. They looked convinced of what they saw.

"That can't be right; the teacher looked genuinely angry for not being listened to. He's not the genre to run a joke." Altin answered. He thought long and hard about it, and he had already concluded there was nothing making sense.

"Um, I'm sure the teacher will realize what was wrong after a while. Anyway, let's watch the TV." Mr. Durand then got up, grabbed the TV remote, and turned it on. Their dining room was quite large, and the table was not far from the TV. The couple liked to watch the news at noon and dinner time. It provided them something to talk, and some connection to the outside world. Although they were considered social, they didn't leave the house very often.

The TV was turned on.

"Tonight at TF1 (1), we interview one of the witnesses of the "levitating hammer" incident. Yesterday afternoon, several witnesses reported that a worker lost grasp of his hammer on a construction site in Paris. When the hammer fell to the street, it was reported that the worker shouted to alarm a pedestrian that was right below on the street. The pedestrian took refuge below; however, the hammer didn't fall. Instead, he levitated in mid-air. We are now going to interview the witness."

On TV, the witness recalled: "When I heard the worker shouting 'CAREFUL!', I immediately raised my head to look at the source of danger. I saw the hammer falling toward me. I immediately rushed to the closest wall to protect myself against the hammer, and I waited. After a few seconds, I realized nothing had fallen, so I came out and looked ahead. I saw, and I swear that isn't a lie, the hammer frozen in mid-air, not moving in the slightest. I took a video and shared it on my Facebook feed. It lasted for about two minutes, and then the hammer fell. The worker and two other passersby have seen that happening. I thought I was dreaming at first, but we were several to see it."

The TV show continued with other witnesses and comments by the journalist on what could have happened.

However, Altin was not listening anymore.

He thought: "It's not just the school."

(1) A famous public French TV channel broadcasting news and entertainment programs.